that a respectable statuary, carrying on business in
Piccadilly, who had refused to pay _black-mail_, brought an action for
libel in the King's Bench on the 1st of July against a man named
Stockdale, publisher of the infamous production referred to, and
recovered L300 damages. The same year Popple, the printer, brought his
action against this fellow; but Mr. Justice Best directed him to be
nonsuited, on the ground that he was not entitled to remuneration for
printing a work of such a character.

The Catholic Relief Bill, which was thrown out this year, is the subject
of several of Robert's satires, bearing the titles of _John Bull versus
Pope Bull_; _Defenders of the Faith_; _The Hare Presumptuous, or a
Catholic Game Trap_; _A Political Shaver, or the Crown in Danger_. _The
Catholic Association, or Paddy Coming it too Strong_, has reference to
Mr. Goulburn's motion to suppress the Catholic Association of Ireland,
which was carried by 278 to 123, and the third reading by a majority of
130. The language used by Mr. O'Connell on the occasion was so strong
that an indictment was subsequently preferred against him, which,
however, was thrown out by the grand jury. _Matheworama_ for 1825
depicts that celebrated impersonator in thirteen of his characters.
_Duelling_ deserves particular mention by reason of the admirably
designed landscape and figures. It represents one of the principals (who
looks very far from comfortable) waiting, with his second and a doctor,
the advent of the other parties. _The Bubble Burst, or the Ghost of an
old Act of Parliament_, has reference to the speculation mania of 1825.
Others of his satires for the year are labelled respectively, _Frank and
Free, or Clerical Characters in 1825_; _A Beau Clerk for a Banking
Concern_; _The Flat Catcher and the Rat Catcher_; and _A Pair of
Spectacles, or the London Stage in 1824-5_, which, although unsigned
and bearing no initials, I have no hesitation in assigning to Robert
Cruikshank.

I am unable to indicate the dates of the following: _Football_, very
clever, and probably earlier than any of those already mentioned;
_Waltzing_, "dedicated with propriety to the lord chamberlain," a very
coarse and severe satire upon the immoralities of the Prince Regent.
Besides those we have already mentioned, we have others with which the
volume miscalled "Cruikshankiana" (so often republished) has made the
general public probably more familiar, such as the _Monstrosities o